ROCKFORD — Winnebago County sheriff candidate Glenn Heidenreich’s name will stay on the ballot, but his title of Navy Seal will be stricken, the Winnebago County Electoral Board decided today.

The three-member board may make decisions on two other objections Thursday after it reviews voter registration records to determine if signatures on Dave Fiduccia and Nancy Edwardsen’s election petitions — for sheriff and county board races respectively — are valid.

The Electoral Board agreed with sheriff candidate Jeffrey Schroeder, who challenged Heidenreich’s petition, that the title of Navy Seal should not have been written on Heidenreich’s petitions. However, it decided to strike that designation from the ballot rather than remove Heidenreich from the race completely.

The board also sided with Heidenreich on two other technical challenges to his petitions. Schroeder challenged that Heidenreich’s petitions should be invalid because he wrote “Dem” rather than Democratic or Democrat under the designation for political party, and he failed to circle his area of residence and whether he was seeking a nomination or election to office.

Deputy State’s Attorney Dave Kurlinkus, who led the three-person board with County Clerk Margie Mullins and Circuit Clerk Tom Klein, said there is case law that indicates those should not be considered fatal errors and Heidenreich’s petitions had substantial compliance.

Heidenreich had initially submitted a challenge against Schroeder’s paperwork, too, but rescinded the objection.

The decision means there are still eight candidates in the race for Winnebago County sheriff. However, the board will likely decide Thursday whether Fiduccia can stay in the mix.

Steve Kudzma, a member of Republican sheriff candidate Gary Caruana’s campaign committee, challenged Fiduccia’s paperwork saying it showed a pattern of fraud. The challenge states that Fiduccia’s petitions did not have the required 465 signatures from registered voters because some people signed more than once and others were not Winnebago County residents or registered voters. The challenge also states that four sheets of 10 signatures were photocopies.

Fiduccia told the board today that he was incapacitated with an illness at the time petitions were challenged and a member of his campaign committee mistakenly submitted the copies. He said those that circulated petitions did not do anything fraudulent.

“These guys worked hard for me and the last thing they’d ever do is something like that,” Fiduccia told the board.

The board will review signatures at the city and county election offices on Wednesday and Thursday before it reconvenes at 1:30 p.m. Thursday to hear arguments and make a decision.

Page 2 of 2 - Also on Thursday, the board will review 11 signatures in the County Board District 6 race. County Board member Kay Mullins challenged the paperwork of Edwardsen, her would-be opponent, saying 11 signatures were invalid because the signers were not registered voters or did not live in District 6.